Business risk can appear at your company's doorstep at any time -- and in many forms. Systems go offline when aging components fail, natural disasters strike, key networking connections don't work, or a local contractor cuts a power cable. Security issues can emerge and threaten the integrity of business data. All work could come to a halt -- or portions of the business could see systems go offline, while others continue to operate normally. No matter the scenario, businesses must plan for such contingencies and what they will do about them when they appear -- unbidden -- and affect their end users and end customers and their ability to do business. Maintaining productive and smoothly running business operations is absolutely mission critical -- and that is even more evident in today's challenging economic conditions. The critical components of an effective IT infrastructure -- servers, storage, software, and all of the networking links -- must be up and running, all the time, to maintain business momentum and employee productivity. In many small and even midsize businesses, current IT systems may not be up to date or easy to manage, and this situation sets the stage for potential problems down the Of course, a variety of IT and business challenges are associated with acquiring and maintaining the most effective IT environments to support ongoing operations.

Businesses of all sizes are increasingly looking for more efficient, cost-effective ways to enhance employee productivity, improve customer service, and accelerate decision-making. These factors are critical for companies to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive marketplace and to make comprehensive business process improvements. Deploying a robust communications and collaboration infrastructure can empower you to meet business goals and get the most out of your technology and workforce investments. HP and Microsoft come together with an end-to-end portfolio of solutions built on next-generation HP ProLiant servers, designed to streamline communications and collaboration and reduce costs. The Unified Communications and Collaboration solution enables your organization to improve business productivity and adapt to changing business needs with a secure, extensible infrastructure that optimizes and integrates instant messaging, presence, voice, data, and video with advanced networking, video, collaboration, and email applications. The integrated HP and Microsoft Communications and Collaboration solution comprising servers, storage, networking, software, services, PCs, printers, and smart phones helps you increase productivity, reduce risks of disruption, lower costs, and improve business efficiency. The modular design of the solution directly addresses the ability to consolidate existing server, storage, and platform environments, and provides continuity of service to your employees. A small business with their technology infrastructure deployed at a single location.

Particularly in difficult economic times, organizations of all sizes strive to streamline costs while leveraging productivity gains. Many companies will evaluate various cost-cutting initiatives in order to weather the storm. However, enterprises need to be careful to pursue cost cutting measures that won't negatively impact business operations or hinder growth in the long term. The paradox facing CIOs and IT managers is how to control or reduce costs while still providing strategic value for the business. With wide-area data services (WDS), leading companies can slash network and IT costs while simultaneously improving application performance and business processes. By accelerating applications up to 100x, organizations can easily consolidate their IT infrastructure and minimize bandwidth utilization saving thousands or even millions of dollars annually. WDS can also enable accelerated disaster recovery operations to minimize the impact and cost of downtime while also saving money on idle DR bandwidth links. Thousands of companies have already achieved the following results: � Site and Server Consolidation � With WDS, companies can consolidate entire data centers or servers from branch offices without compromising application performance. The LANlike performance enabled by Riverbed Steelhead products eliminates the trade-off between consolidation and speed. Consolidation becomes a reality � impacting the productivity of your branch users.

Particularly in difficult economic times, organizations of all sizes strive to streamline costs while leveraging productivity gains. Many companies will evaluate various cost-cutting initiatives in order to weather the storm. However, enterprises need to be careful to pursue cost cutting measures that won't negatively impact business operations or hinder growth in the long term. The paradox facing CIOs and IT managers is how to control or reduce costs while still providing strategic value for the business. With wide-area data services (WDS), leading companies can slash network and IT costs while simultaneously improving application performance and business processes. By accelerating applications up to 100x, organizations can easily consolidate their IT infrastructure and minimize bandwidth utilization saving thousands or even millions of dollars annually. WDS can also enable accelerated disaster recovery operations to minimize the impact and cost of downtime while also saving money on idle DR bandwidth links. Thousands of companies have already achieved the following results: � Site and Server Consolidation � With WDS, companies can consolidate entire data centers or servers from branch offices without compromising application performance. The LANlike performance enabled by Riverbed Steelhead products eliminates the trade-off between consolidation and speed. Consolidation becomes a reality � impacting the productivity of your branch users.

More than ever, your Website's performance matters. The average online shopper expects your pages to load in two seconds or less, down from four seconds in 2006; after three seconds, up to 40% will abandon your site.i And performance pressure just keeps growing. To drive more sales and boost brand image, today's Websites are increasingly dependent on sophisticated technologies such as shopping tools, interactive games, and videos that attract attention, hold interest or move visitors toward your virtual shopping cart. But if the technology behind the marketing vision for your Website creates delays or fails to work properly, watch out -- your visitors may quickly abandon your site and run to the competition. Gomez' own studies reveal that lack of visitor loyalty. By analyzing page abandonment data across more than 150 websites and 150 million page views, Gomez found that an increase in page response time from 2 to10 seconds increased page abandonment rates by 38%.ii Page Response Time Drives An Increase In Page Abandonment The causes of Web dysfunction may be complex, but the lesson is simple: so-called "IT" issues that slow down your site can impact revenue, customer satisfaction and your brand -- if they're not identified, and resolved.

Everyone wants more traffic to their Website, right? More Web traffic surely means more revenue, more conversions, and reduced costs. But what happens if your Website can't handle the load? What happens if the investments you make to drive traffic to your site result in reduced revenue?

As companies continue to develop custom applications to manage their business, the issues of high costs and inefficiency become paramount. Over the past few years, enterprises have begun to reassess their use of traditionally licensed application servers and are increasingly opting to decrease costs by moving to well-trusted, open source alternatives. IDC studied the business value of adopting the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform on behalf of Red Hat by interviewing six large United States�based companies that used JBoss to develop custom applications and have been running the applications for at least 12 months. On average, the companies in the study gained more than $6 million a year in financial benefits by moving from traditional proprietary application servers to JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. This translated to $20,240 per 100 users. The six companies in the study were able to realize the following key benefits: Time to develop custom applications was reduced by an average of 16 weeks (39%). Developer hours for each application were reduced by 24%. Infrastructure costs supporting application development were reduced by 65%. Costs to manage applications following deployment were reduced by 89%. Because of more efficient application development, companies were able to develop 51% more applications year.

Red Hat Inc. develops, distributes, and supports the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating environment and also distributes and supports JBoss Enterprise Middleware -- a comprehensive product portfolio that provides platforms for development, deployment, integration, presentation, and production of Java and Web-based applications. Red Hat also provides JBoss Operations Network (JBoss ON) -- an integrated management platform for centralized systems management (server agent) of JBoss Enterprise Middleware. JBoss ON provides JBoss-specific management information that can be used standalone or integrated with existing tools from other system management vendors. JBoss ON management functions include discovery and inventory, configuration management, application deployment, availability management, performance management, and content management. JBoss ON provides these management functions for the JBoss Enterprise Application, Web Server, SOA, and Portal Platforms; the JBoss Enterprise Web Server; and the JBoss Enterprise Business Rules Management System (BRMS). This IDC ROI study focuses on the quantitative benefits gained from using the JBoss ON management platform. IDC conducted a series of in-depth interviews with staff members of IT organizations that have deployed JBoss Operations Network to manage their JBoss Enterprise Middleware environments, including applications and underlying operating systems and hardware infrastructure. Structured questions were used to assess and quantify the internal external costs of performing certain administrative, operational, and support functions and how costs changed as a result of implementing JBoss Operations Network.

2008 saw the emergence of social media tools as a way to engage customers in two way dialogue.
Additionally, studies indicated that online video became one of the most effective ways to engage customers
online. This free panel discussion focuses on ways to use online video to enhance the two-way dialogue
with customers and prospects and strengthen your online community.

With the cost of power rising dramatically and increased uncertainty of global power availability, all levels of corporate management are now more focused than ever on managing and conserving energy. Nowhere is this more critical than in the data center of the corporation, which can consume 25 percent of the total energy in a typical IT intensive organization (Raritan estimate based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Public Law 109-431"). Due to increased reliance on computing to deliver mission-critical applications and the emergence of blade technology and virtualization, server density is dramatically increasing. These increases mean that data centers are running hotter and HVAC systems are working overtime to keep the center cool. This, in turn, is driving energy costs up � a growing concern for IT, given the potential for this expense to become an above-the-line IT charge. Clearly, there's a need to monitor data center power and temperatures � and adjust heating, cooling and airflow � to minimize power consumption while maintaining IT equipment uptime. But where should forward-thinking corporations start? What tools are available to get the data needed to design a more efficient data center? This paper, the first in a series, takes a look at some of these thorny energy management issues and provides some relevant answers.

Top White Papers

As a technology provider, incorporating managed services can help you not only stand out from other resellers, but it can also provide your business with a consistent source of monthly recurring revenue. But before you get started, you will need a systematic plan with well thought-out steps that include understanding your target market and implementing essential automation. If you’re considering adding managed services to your service offering, read this eBook to learn the six important steps to get the best results from this more profitable revenue stream.

Discover how HPE is responding to the massive growth in enterprise data with intelligent storage. Data helps enterprises find new ways to reach and serve customers to grow profitability, but only when it is available at the right place and the right time. The growing complexity of managing and securing data prevents businesses from gaining its full value. Hewlett Packard Enterprise delivers the world’s most intelligent storage for the hybrid cloud world by providing storage that is driven by artificial intelligence, built for the cloud, and delivered as a service.

Advertiser Disclosure:
Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which QuinStreet receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. QuinStreet does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.